UCSD LEADER URGES NEW THINKING TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES

Incoming chancellor gets warm reception at campus gathering

UC San Diego will have to find new ways to maintain and enhance its excellence in an era of declining public funding, the university’s incoming chancellor told a welcoming crowd Thursday.

Pradeep Khosla, whose appointment was confirmed Wednesday by the UC Board of Regents, addressed more than 200 students, faculty, administrators and staff on campus.

“I think we’ll have a choice of waiting for the good old days to come back or define our own good old days going forward,” said Khosla, 55, who will take over for Chancellor Marye Anne Fox on Aug. 1.

He told the audience he was well aware of the “significant challenge” that budgetary issues pose to the campus, but did not dwell on the topic during the upbeat gathering at which both he and Fox received standing ovations.

Khosla did not discuss the criticism of his compensation package there or at a subsequent meeting with reporters.

At the event, Fox praised Khosla as an “accomplished executive” and a “visionary” and cited his success as a fundraiser and researcher.

The incoming chancellor praised Fox and the rest of the campus community, saying that he was “taking over a university that is younger than I am but has accomplished more than I ever will.”

In the session with reporters, Khosla expanded on his thoughts about school finances.

Public universities, he said, had until recently grown complacent in their reliance on substantial government support.

“That mindset has not changed as fast as the state funding has gone down,” he said.

Khosla noted that only about 9 percent of UC San Diego’s annual budget, which totals $2.9 billion, comes from state funds. The rest comes from tuition, fees, federal grants, public and private contracts, medical center revenue and gifts.

“Private enterprise has to augment the education system,” he said without elaborating. He also added that parents and students are likely to have to contribute more.

He was asked if he believes that tuition, which has risen sharply at UC in recent years, will have to continue a steady climb.

“I would like to make the tuition zero if I could,” he said, but added that the university must face “fiscal reality.”

Khosla, who has served as dean of the engineering school at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh since 2004, has been praised by officials there and with UC for his prodigious success in raising funds from industry, federal and state grants, foundations and alumni. He noted that fundraising will be key in UC San Diego’s future.

Khosla’s base salary of $411,084 annually is 4.8 percent higher than Fox’s, but below the $451,422 salary he earned at Carnegie Mellon in 2010.

Asked why he was willing to take a pay cut, he said it was “the opportunity to be at the hub of what I consider to be one of the top 10 universities in the country” or even the world.

Pay for the leaders of public universities in California has been an issue since California State University trustees hired Elliot Hirshman to lead San Diego State University last year at $400,000 annually. That figure is 33 percent higher than what his predecessor was paid.